The present invention relates generally to the pre-cast concrete wall systems and, more particularly, to a pre-cast concrete wall system that incorporates a support for a floor truss system.
Pre-cast concrete wall systems are known in the art, as can be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,494,004, issued to Melvin Zimmerman on Dec. 17, 2002. Such pre-cast concrete walls are typically used as basement walls for building structures, for example, houses and commercial buildings. Such walls are manufactured in a production plant by assembling non-concrete components into a form and pouring concrete into the form to encapsulate the non-concrete components. Once the concrete has hardened, the form is stripped away from the manufactured wall and the wall panel is transported to the job site for installation. Typically, a plurality of wall panels is assembled on the job site to form a basement structure of the building to be constructed thereon.
The pre-cast concrete walls are formed with a concrete footer beam that extends along the bottom of the wall panel and a concrete upper bond beam that extends along the top of the wall panel. Each panel also includes a number of structural members or studs, which are oriented vertically when the wall panels are assembled into a basement wall, that extend between the upper bond beam and the footer beam. These vertical studs are also formed from concrete but are faced with wood or other non-concrete material to permit the attachment of a finished wall panels, such as drywall or paneling. The top of the upper bond beam will accept the connection of a sill plate for the attachment of the floor structure of the building to be constructed with the top of the pre-cast concrete wall being below the floor structure.
In some areas of the country, such as the Southwest area of the United States, building practices require the floor structure to be recessed below grade so that adjacent slab on grade portions of the building may have the same finished floor level as the floor over the basement portion of the building, meaning that the concrete basement wall must cover the support members of the building floor. In such situations, the use of the conventional pre-cast concrete wall system is hindered as the wall structure is not configured to support the building floor below the upper surface of the upper bond beam. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a pre-cast concrete wall structure that would support building floor systems at a below-grade position.